This application is based on Patent Application No. 2000-128489 filed Apr. 27, 2000 in Japan, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector mounted to electronic appliances such as portable telephones, telephones, PDA (personal digital assistance), portable audio, cameras and the like, more specifically to a card connector which can be loaded simultaneously with at least two cards of different types differing in outer shape, contact pad position or the like.
2. Description of Prior Art
In electronic appliances such as portable telephones, telephones, PDA, cameras and the like, various functional expansions are achieved by mounting IC cards such as SIM (subscriber identify module) card, MMC (multimedia card), smart media (trademark), SD (super density, secure digital) card, memory stick (trademark) and the like, which are incorporated with ICs such as memories or the like.
In a connector structure for detachably mounting such IC cards, a plurality of contact terminals which are connected with various signal processing circuits and a power supply circuit at the electronic appliance side mounted with the connector are provided in a connector housing, and these plurality of contact terminals are contacted with a plurality of contact pads formed on the front or backside of the mounted IC card, so that the IC card is electrically connected through these contact terminals with the electronic appliances mounting the connector.
As described above, IC cards of this kind include various cards differing in outer shape or contact pad position. However, recently, a card connector is in demand that can be loaded with cards of a plurality of different types simultaneously so that the electronic appliances can be operative with cards of a plurality of types.
For example, when considering a card connector which is possible to be loaded with two types of card, as one construction thereof, a card slot is constructed so that two types of card arranged side by side can be inserted.
However, when cards are arranged side by side, connector area occupying on the board is increased to interfere with downsizing of the electronic appliance.
Furthermore, as another configuration of connector capable of loading with two types of card, a technique is considered in which the card slot is constructed so that cards can be inserted in a positional relation of upper lower sides.
In this case, however, when respective contact terminals for two types of card are arranged so that the respective contact terminals are pressed into and fixed in a same direction (for example, contact terminals are pressed from a card rear surface wall side to a card ejection direction), soldered portions of respective contact terminals are concentrated to one of rear surface side or front surface side of the card housing. Therefore, these soldered portions tend to be interfered with each other, and the layout thereof becomes very difficult.
That is, in this type of card connector, the plurality of contact terminals are required to be arranged so that soldered portions fixed to the printed circuit board are disposed in a single line with an appropriate pitch for subsequent repair (soldered portion is peeled off using an electric soldering copper), image recognition of the board implemented or for image inspection of the soldered portions. When the soldered portions are arranged in two rows, the outside soldered portions are accessed by the electric soldering copper, however, the inside soldered portions are not accessible by the electric soldering copper. To dispose soldered portions of a plurality of contact terminals in a line, it is necessary to arrange soldered portions of contact terminals for one card between pitches of soldered portions of the other card, when the pitch is small in width, the arrangement thereof becomes substantially impossible.
Furthermore, as described above, in each of this type of card, contact pad pitches are naturally different from each other. Therefore, in order to arrange in a line the respective soldered portions of respective cards of different pad pitches, it is necessary to devise a complex shape of soldered portions of contact terminals, which poses a problem of difficulty in manufacture.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances. The object of the present invention is to provide a card connector which is capable of containing two or more types of card differing in outer shape or contact pad position. And the object of the present invention is to provide the card connector, in which the contact terminals can easily be arranged in an appropriate layout corresponding to the layout of the contact pads of the respective cards while reducing the connector area occupying on the board, and soldering work, servicing work and the like can easily be carried out.
According to an one aspect of the present invention, a card connector capable of containing at least two types of first and second cards differing in outer shape and contact pad position, comprises a connector housing having a upper slot for containing the first card and a lower slot for containing the second card, a plurality of first contact terminals corresponding to contact pads for the first card, and a plurality of second contact terminals corresponding to contact pads for the second card, wherein each soldered portion of the first contact terminal is disposed at a rear surface side of the connector housing, and for soldered portions of the second contact terminals, part thereof are disposed at the same rear surface side of soldered portions of the first contact terminals, and remnants thereof are all disposed at a front surface side of the connector housing so as to be in reverse direction to the first contact terminals.
According to the present invention, respective slots for two types of card are disposed in upper and lower sides, so that part of second contact terminals for the second card are opposite in insertion direction to the other second contact terminals and first contact terminals for the first card. Therefore, even if the respective slots for two types of card are disposed in upper and lower sides, respective soldered parts of the first and second contact terminals will not interfere with one another, and the respective soldered parts can easily be arranged each in a single line. Further, contact terminals can easily be arranged in an appropriate layout corresponding to the layout of the contact pad of the second card while reducing the connector area occupying on the board.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.